At the sudden movement and shouts from his companions on the other side of the boat, Toboran swung out his spear and scaled the wood of the funeral ship as though it had been a tree from his native world. He peered into the underground city, trying to glimpse where Jhoric was and why he had called for help. No sense rushing into things without some planning.

The mass of dead dwarves began to arise, looking more like puppets having their strings pulled, then of the dead returning to 'life'.

They were slow at first, pulling themselves up, seeming uncaring of posture, heads lolling loosely though hands upraised to grasp. They then began a slow, shuffling gait towards Jhoric, and his companions behind. Not a headlong rush, it seemed it would be some moments before they closed.

1 full round at least before melee with Jhoric is possible, unless he wishes to run into their grasp. Those at the boathouse have at least three rounds at this speed.

Jhoric reached behind his back with one hand and slipped his spear out of its harness, while taking a quick look around to make sure he wasn't going to be flanked. He sent his gathered energy in the form of a black burst at one of the resurrected dwarves. "The One Born in Darkness will not fall to a pack of shambling zombies, this test will be no match for me and my allies!" He shouted with dignity, not knowing where in his mind the words came from. He could hear the hurried footsteps on his allies, they would make quick work of the stout undead even if he could not.

Fafnir set off to rescue his wayward companion. The hordes of dead dwarves wouldn't prevail today. His scales were itching with all the unnatural magic in the air. He steeled his heart for battle and gripped his scimitar tightly.

Running directly towards Jhoric to join in the melee. Lashing out with his scimitar once close.

Logged

Nature is everywhere. It will overwhelm those foolisssh enough to seek to control it.-Fafnir, only minutes before his world was destroyed.

Jhoric let off his blast and, not even making sure he hit, made a mad dash to try and get out of the center of the horde. Pushing, shoving, kicking, and stepping on undead dwarves in the most opportune ways to get his ass out of that mob.

[ooc]Full Withdraw action possible? Should give me 60ft of move with no AoOs, unless I'm mistake or you deem that unfit.[/ooc]

Jhoric managed to pull out of the wall of flailing leathery bones without incident, the corpses's attacks as clumsy as their gait.

It took little time for Jhoric to get among his friends, who had surged up up to the help him. The stumbling horde moved up and Gideon's sword found easy prey in the dry corpses. Each sword swing smashing two into leathery shards. Jhoric blasted away, his bolts punching through the corpses, often managing to shatter more then one. Balin's short legs proved no disadvantage as he was easily able to outpace the corpses. Toboran's spear seemed ineffective against the corpses, until he simply swung it like a staff and was knocking them down also. Fafnir's scimitar was similarly effective, and he smashed them down nearly as fast as Gideon.

Though being shattered like clay pots, the corpses had numbers, and were beginning to surround the party, though more from simple desire to attack then any guile.

Then, Jhoric was startled to hear from his left hand, which still bore the string of shrunken heads, "Pass!", and the remaining corpses simply fell where they stood, clattering down and raising dust. Gideon was in mid-swing when his target simply disassembled and provided no substance for his blow. He nearly stumbled and his passenger was nearly dislodged.

Jhoric smiled at Toboran. A slightly twisted smile with a hint of mania.

"You heard it, right?." He said. Then, looking down at the contents of his left hand, "I found these two on the remains of a shaman. They seem to be intelligent, and powerful. They might be able to help us. We passed their test."

He held them up for his companions to see; and spoke to the shrunken heads.

"My name is Jhoric. The one with the spear is Toboran. The short, bearded one is Balin, I believe the shaman I found you on was of a similar race. The lizard-man is Fafnir. The massive one is Gideon, and the old one on his back is Estwick. What are your names?"

"Their names are 'Should-Have-Left-Us' and '-The-Heck-Alone'." Gideon poked with his thick finger towards the shrunken heads."The term may be 'nec-romantic', but usually such a romance costs you your neck."The half-ogre shook his head vigorously."Real men need no bone-puppets, Jhoric! Real men do work with their hands!" He thrust one meaty fist right before Jhoric's nose."So, apologize to your new friends in Shrunkenese that they cannot ride the fancy boat and join the party."Disappointed, he frowned. "I thought you learned your lesson, Jhoric, with how them priests were laundering the evil out of you! You were bawling your eyes out back then, if I remember correctly."

Logged

"Captain, the buttocks are moving from the pink into the red and purple spectrum! We cannot maintain this rate of spanking any longer!"

"Gideon. I was not born with the gift of massive strength such as yourself. I was born with the gift of magic. You use your strength where it applies and I will use my magic the same way. I have done nothing 'Evil' by trying to discover who these lost warriors were. I believe the heads can help us understand this world better, being a part of it as they are."

Jhoric sighed deeply. "At least let them speak before you say they can't join us. I'll carry them just like you carry Estwick and everything will be fine. We have this under control."

Fafnir peered at the shrunken heads. Sometimes specific tribes of his people would shrink the heads of their deceased and keep them around as tools for the shaman or wise man. This link to the ancestors gave the tribe shaman special insight into the experience of their ancestors. This find could be quite helpful indeed, he had little experience dealing with his tribe's shaman but any information about this land and its natural dangers would be precious to the city. That might indebt the warmbloods to him. He would succeed where the other lizardfolk had failed. He would rise in the social chain by learning more about this land and spreading his knowledge. Knowledge is power. Fafnir grinned, "They speak? What exactly do these cursed heads speak of? Hopefully of the caves and the lands beyond."

Logged

Nature is everywhere. It will overwhelm those foolisssh enough to seek to control it.-Fafnir, only minutes before his world was destroyed.

"Oh, well. I'm so glad that we passed the test of a pair of talking shrunken heads!" Toboran threw his hands into the air in disgust, "Maybe next we could go have a tea party with some bugbears and help a little old dragon cross the street!" He didn't like undead.

Logged

"And how can man die better than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers, or the temples of his gods."

"Anytime a magician says 'I have this under control' all will blow up and everybody dies."Varily, he eyed the creepy heads as he continued."There is no easy. 'Easy' will bugger you when you turn your back; all the 'easy' will come back to bite you in the arse. All there is is working all day and making something out of youself. 'I will magick the orcs to work for us' the wizard says, next thing, the old geezer has a heart attack and the town is full of orcs with a short temper and a lot of questions."

"Bones belong in the earth, not dancing around."

Logged

"Captain, the buttocks are moving from the pink into the red and purple spectrum! We cannot maintain this rate of spanking any longer!"

"Well, it seems our friend in the boat is moving again. It's only a guess, though an educated guess, that he is not even as 'friendly' as these heads." With that Balin reached into a small inside pocket of his shirt and removed one of his precious magical items, a wand. He pointed the stick towards the figure holding the warhammer and quietly murmured the trigger phrase, instantly firing a bolt of pure blue energy from its tip. The bolt flew unerringly toward its target at an amazing speed.

Logged

Ph'nglui mglwnafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

(\__/) This is The Bunny.(='.'=) Add him to your signature like me(")_(") to further his world domination.

"Shooting dwarves and talking to shrunken heads? Are you all daft, I ask?"Though weapons at the ready, Gideon turned to the figure emerging from the boat."Hey, mister dwarf! We come in peace - sort of... forgive the wizard's shot!"To the rest of the pack, he hissed: "Cut it out, all of you."

Logged

"Captain, the buttocks are moving from the pink into the red and purple spectrum! We cannot maintain this rate of spanking any longer!"

Toboran pulled his spear up and ready. "You're as bad as Jhoric, Gideon. Talking to the dead like they could answer you. He's not going to be sitting down to tell us all a story when he gets here, you can wager on that. I think more could follow our fine bearded friend's example."

Logged

"And how can man die better than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers, or the temples of his gods."

"A friend perhaps? Maybe our luck is turning. However these things have a tendency to go bad, I'll let Gideon handle the hammer-wielder." With that Fafnir took a stride in Jhoric's direction, hoping to protect the spellcaster if need be.

Logged

Those who walk the shadows, tread a very narrow path between darkness and light. This path will reveal all.